Salient to Investors:
Lewis Braham writes:
Contrarian funds can be a hedge of sorts, though a potentially volatile one as out-of-favor sectors tend to be cyclical and prone to booms and busts. Shorting is inherently dangerous as markets have been trending higher.
Brian Singer at William Blair Macro Allocation Fund said currencies help diversify portfolios because they behave very differently from stocks and bonds. Singer recently put 19 percent of the fund in the Indian rupee which he says is undervalued by as much as 70 percent and India’s new central bank governor has already taken actions to stabilize it by raising interest rates. Singer uses financial derivatives to earn a 6 percent yield on the equivalent of a bank deposit. Individual investors can buy currency CDs – a 3-month FDIC-insured rupee CD from Everbank yields 7.25 percent. Singer is short the iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF and long the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF and says people believe the US is the only source of growth and stability in the world but will be surprised in 2014 at how volatile growth stocks can be.
Don Hodges at the Hodges Pure Contrarian Fund is betting on coal, iron and copper mining stocks and said a recovery in the sector will begin when the Chinese work off their commodity inventories and begin buying again.
Jason Hsu at Research Affiliates said emerging market stocks are at a tremendous discount to US stocks. Hsu said the Shiller PE ratio for the S&P 500 is 24 versus its 16.5 average, versus 13.5 for emerging markets. Hsu is buying TIPS – TIPS with maturities of more than 20 years are yielding 1.5 percent over inflation, and is betting on a decline in large US stocks as well as on improved prospects for high-yield and emerging market bonds.
The BlackRock Municipal Target Term Trust trades at an 11.5 percent discount to portfolio value and yields 6.73 percent on a tax-free basis.
Rudolph Riad-Younes at RSQ International Equity Fund does not like gold because it trades closer to 20 percent above its cost of production versus 10 percent to 15 percent historically, and that cost will fall in the next 5 years, further driving down gold prices.
Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-10/the-2014-contrarian-investment-tour-from-rupees-to-copper.html
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